This invention relates to short circuit protection arrangements for driver circuits. Such arrangements are used in automotive applications, for example to protect circuits driving inductive loads such as electric motors and solenoids.
In a typical known short circuit protection arrangement for a driver circuit the driver circuit is automatically disabled when a short circuit condition is sensed. The driver circuit is then periodically re-enabled using a timer circuit to test whether the short circuit condition still exists. If the short circuit condition no longer exists then the driver circuit remains enabled, but if the short circuit condition still exists then the driver circuit is again automatically disabled and later periodically re-enabled.
Such a known protection arrangement produces high current peaks associated with the timer re-tries, which may result in significant electromagnetic interference. Also such a known protection arrangement requires the incorporation of complicated timer circuitry.